The New York State Seal of Biliteracy Handbook

Appendix 1

Earning the New York State Seal of Biliteracy

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A. Students wishing to receive the New York State (NYS) Seal of Biliteracy must complete all requirements for

graduating with a NYS Regents diploma*;

B. In addition to the above minimum requirement, students wishing to receive a NYS Seal of Biliteracy must earn

three (3) points in each of the two (2) areas listed below:

Criteria for Demonstrating Proficiency in

English

Point

Value

Criteria for Demonstrating Proficiency in a

World Language

Point

Value

1a. Score 75 or higher on the NYS Comprehensive English

Regents Examination or score 80 or higher on the NYS

Regents Examination in English Language Arts

(Common Core)*

English Language Learners (ELLs) score 75 or above on

two Regents exams other than English, without

translation.

2a. Complete a Checkpoint C level World Language

course, with a grade of 85 or higher, or a comparable

score using another scoring system set by the district

and approved by the Commissioner, for both the

coursework and final examination consistent with

Checkpoint C standards.

1b. ELLs score at the Commanding level on two

modalities on the New York State English as a Second

Language

Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) as

demonstrated by an overall scale score of 290.

2b. Provide transcripts from a school in a country

outside of the U.S. showing at least three years of

instruction

in the student’s home/native language in

Grade 8 or

beyond, with an equivalent grade average

of B or

higher.

1c. Complete all 11

and 12

grade ELA courses with an

average of 85 or higher or a comparable score using

another scoring system set by the district and approved

by the Commissioner.

2c. For students enrolled in a Bilingual Education

program, complete all required Home Language Arts

(HLA) coursework and the district HLA exam with an

85 or higher or a comparable score using another

scoring system set by the district and approved by

the Commissioner.

1d. Achieve the following scores on the examinations

listed below:

-3 or higher on an Advanced Placement (AP) English

Language or English Literature examination, or

-80 or higher on the Test of English as a Foreign

Language (TOEFL).

2d. Score at a proficient level on an accredited

Checkpoint C World Language assessment (See

“Checkpoint C World Language Assessments and

Minimum Scores” on the following page.)

1e. Present a culminating project, scholarly essay or

portfolio that meets the criteria for speaking, listening,

reading, and writing established by the district’s NYS

Seal of Biliteracy Committee to a panel of reviewers

with proficiency in English.

2e. Present a culminating project, scholarly essay, or

portfolio that meets the criteria for speaking,

listening, reading, and writing established by the

district’s NYS Seal of Biliteracy Committee and that is

aligned to the NYS Checkpoint C Learning Standards

to a panel of reviewers with proficiency in the target

language.

Testing accommodations recommended in an individualized education program or section 504 Accommodations Plan must

be provided for all State and districtwide assessments administered to students with disabilities, as consistent with State

policy. Students with disabilities should also receive these testing accommodations on Checkpoint C World Language

Assessments, as permitted.

* Students in schools with an alternate pathway for graduation approved by the Commissioner will be held to those

schools' criteria.

Appendix 2 [Back to Table]

Checkpoint C World Language Assessments and Minimum Scores

(based on ACTFL Intermediate High standards)

Completing one or one group of these examinations will yield one point towards the three total

points necessary on the criteria point system for demonstrating world language proficiency.

ASSESSMENT

MIN SCORE

– Advanced Placement Examination

Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Spanish, Spanish Literature

IB -

International Baccalaureate

Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish , Dutch, English,

Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer,

Korean, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Nepali, Norwegian, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Persian, Portuguese, Russian,

Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai , Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese

Standard level -5

Upper level - 4

STAMP4S - Standard Based Measurement of Proficiency

Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), English, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Spanish, German, and Italian

DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language) – through Cervantes Institute NYC

AAPPL

-The ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages

Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and ESL. New in 2019: Korean.

I-5

OPI

– The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview

Afrikaans, Akan-Twi, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese,

Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Czech, Dari, Dutch, English, French, Ga, Georgian, German, Greek (Modern), Gujarati, Haitian,

Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hmong-Mong, Hungarian, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese,

Kashmiri, Kazakh, Kikongo-Kongo, Korean, Krio, Kurdish, Lao, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Mandingo-Bambara, Nepali,

Norwegian, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Sind

hi, Sinhalese, Slovak,

Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Tausug, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek,

Vietnamese, Wolof, Wu, and Yoruba.

OPIc - The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer

Arabic, English, French, German, Italian*, Korean, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Farsi, *Portuguese,

Russian and Spanish. (*Limitations apply)

WPT/BWT – The ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test/Business Writing Test

Paper & Pen: Albanian, Arabic, Chinese-Cantonese, Chinese-Mandarin, English, French, German, Greek, Haitian

Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Spanish,

Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese

-Internet: Arabic, Chinese-Cantonese, Chinese-Mandarin, Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian,

Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese

RPT – The ACTFL Reading Proficiency Test

English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish

LPT – The ACTFL Listening Proficiency Test

English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and German.

Intermediate High

In this section,

students should take

exams in as many

modalities (speaking,

listening, reading and

writing) as available

to qualify for

Checkpoint C credit.

ALIRA

– The ACTFL Latin Interpretive Reading Assessment

I-4

SLPI: ASL –

American Sign Language Proficiency Interview

Intermediate Plus

NOTE: Some exams do not give results until after June, so students/advisors may need to plan accordingly.

Other nationally recognized examinations may be used if approved by the district’s NYS Seal of Biliteracy Committee